Glimpses
by ale-la-pazza1
Summary: This is how imagined Kate's shooting scene and the consequences. Set before 6x14. WARNING: I did this without a beta, so don't be surprised you find grammar mistakes, I'm not native.


_Glimpses_

The pain was almost unbearable, her shoulder was like on fire, she saw the blood and panicked, she had never been shoot before, she had pulled the trigger herself but she had never received the hit, not that she wouldn't it all over again, it was worth, she had spared Jack's life, if she hadn't come in front of him just in time the bullet would have come trough Jack's heart; she was losing consciousness, the pain was sending her in the blackness, the only thing her mind registered was Jack's voice, full of panic, it only said one sentence all over again "Kate, don't leave me, please hold on", she fought to keep her eyes opened, but darkness was way stronger than she was. Somehow she managed to open her eyes after what it felt a lifetime and the first and only thing she saw is Jack, he was examinating her wound, professionally and yet with such a care it reminds her of the good old times, when they had nursed each other, now it was all so messed up; she tried to sit, Jack helped her and said "Careful, you've been shot. I've been able to take off the bullet when you passed out, but now I've to sew you up", they arranged in a position comfortable for Jack to do his job; they stay quiet for a little while but Kate broke the silence "Seems like you and me have a thing for the sewing up", even with the weight of the world on his shoulder Jack can't help but chuckle a little, afterall they had end up right where they had begun, "Yeah, life has a funny sense of humor, after three years we're right back where we started", she tried to put up the pain, it was tearing her apart, physical pain is almost as bad as the emotional one Jack had put her trough when he had said they were all misery and he wanted to erase them at once, Jack noticed her pain and said "I'm sorry I don't have anything to ease the pain", she grinned her teeth and whispered "One, two, three, four…", Jack finished with her "Five", he gently tucked her hairs behind her hair, a gesture so familiar, he had done so many times in the years they've been together, and yet so dangerous, it opened a series of unanswered questions she had had in mind for a while. Jack was still sewing her up when he asked her "Kate, why did you do it? Why did you take that bullet that was meant for me?", that question was not a light one, a lot of subtext was behind it, what Jack was really asking was "Do you still love me? Would you die for me?", and she was not ready to answer him yet, not if it meant getting her heart crushed once again, she answered as vaguely as it was possible "Because we're a team. Live together, die alone. You've taught me that", she could tell he had stiffened a little, he probably expected a different answer, but she couldn't give in, not now, not after he had told her in that tent, she vaguely recalled Richard saying that love is complicated, he clearly had no idea how much it was true for her and Jack. Jack finished and helped her to get on her feet, he was already pulling away when she stops him, he was looking directly in her eyes with that gaze of his, the one that reached every single fiber of her being, she tried not to get lost in that gaze and she mumbled "What I said before I didn't mean it. What I should have said is that I took that bullet because I couldn't bear the thought of you dying., because I love", Jack was clearly puzzled, she kept looking at him, waiting for an answer but she never got one, what did she get was a kiss, a fierce, never ending one, the one she needed since she first saw a glimpse of her old Jack, they didn't need to break the kiss for lack of air or anything, quite frankly they didn't wanna part anymore, not even for the physical need they might had, they had been waiting for a taste of each other for too long, the need for each other was definitely stronger than the physical need.

Jack entered the ER, a nurse had paged him about a gunshot, it was not his area of expertise but apparently a nurse couldn't do the job because the police was somehow involved and they needed a doctor and he was the only one available; the nurse greeted him with a chart of his new patient, a certain Katherine Anne Austen, he didn't know why but the name was so familiar to him, it reminds me of someone fierce, brunette, someone passionate, a name shouldn't give him these ideas, it was just a name; he shook off these thoughts while he got into the semi private room of the ER, waiting for him was the pretty brunette that was on the flight with him back from Sydney but she was not alone, two FBI agents were keeping her company, one was the guy from the flight that was waiting for her outside the bathroom while the other was unknown. He briefly introduced himself and asked the FBI for some privacy with the patient, he escorted them out of the room, and made the girl accommodate in order to extract the bullet, he asked before starting "Are you afraid of needles? Because I've to give you something for the pain", the girl didn't talk, she just shook her head and offers her good arm for the injection, he did it as gently as he could, she could appear tough on the outside but he could tell she was terrified, neither of them spoke a word while Jack took out the bullet even though there were a million question Jack would ask her: what had she done to be turned on to the FBI, why was she on the plane, why she looked so damn familiar and somehow intimate, why she didn't feel like a stranger at all to him, but he didn't ask, it would be highly inappropriate on his behalf. He stepped from the table for a second to get the sewing Kate when she said "Funny to meet you again, I didn't know you were a doctor", he couldn't help but reply "I didn't know you were a criminal", they both cracked a smile and she said "Touché", he looked at her, there was definitely something too familiar about her, but it couldn't quite put his finger on it, the girl must had noticed because she said "Doctor, is something wrong?", he snapped back in focus and said "No, there's nothing wrong. It's just that there's something so familiar about you, like we know each other from somewhere, and no I don't mean the plane. It's something else, but I can't figure out what it is", Kate tried not to look at Jack stitching her when she said "Well, if it's any help the feeling is mutual", now she turned to see him smile at her, he was sure he had seen that smile already, he had to take his mind off or he'd lose focus on what he was doing; he asked her "Are you afraid?", she stayed silent, probably because she wanted to look tough and not scared by anything, he went on "Because I've a way to deal with the fear", she was interested, she looked over her shoulder and asked him "Really? How do you do then?", he got her attention, he had her distracted from the pain, that was a start, he proceeded to tell her the story of his first solo surgery "Well I was really afraid during my first solo procedure, I was operating a girl, and I messed up, I ripped her dural sack, fear took the best of me, but I decided I'd be afraid only for five seconds so I counted to five, one, two, three, four…" and together they said "Five", then they flashed. Jack flashed about their first meeting, whereas Kate flashed about the retelling of the story, Jack flashed about when he asked her if she got his back while she flashed about when she said she had always been with him, he flashed about telling her he'd come back for her while she flashed about him telling he loved her, he flashed about proposing to her while she flashed about watching him before he dropped the bomb; when the flashes ended, Kate was left in tears, and Jack couldn't keep sewing her anymore, she could only mumble "Jack…I..", he caressed her face, moved her hair out of her face and he whispered "I know… I remember, I remember all", she was openinly weeping now "What are we going to do now, Jack?", he closed the last stitch, he helped her getting down the bed where she had been sitting while he had been sewing her up, he turned to her and said "We'll do what we have always done: we'll manage to find a way to be together" she went on her tips and kissed him, one of those never ending kiss, the kind that took your breath away, the kind you hold on for you dear life, the spectacular, consciousness altering kind.


End file.
